In just a little over two weeks all three major console makers will all have new machineson the market, which means it’s finally time to bid a fond farewell to seventh generation consoles. Sure, a few more current gen (soon to be last gen) games are still on the way, but the era of the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii is rapidly drawing to a close.

Before the next generation kicks off in earnest, we here at GammaSquad thought we’d take a look at some of the best games of this past generation. We’ve made it all the way to #6, and now, without further ado, here’s the top five…

Note: This list only covers console games — no PC-only titles or handheld games. New handhelds come out on a different schedule than consoles, and the PC doesn’t really have “generations” per se, so neither really fit with the “best games of the past generation” scope of this series.

5) Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy was simply the most polished game of this generation. Every power-up and mechanic worked just right, the camera was somehow always exactly where it should be and every stage was a perfect little master class in game design. The game also added some much needed bombast and gravity to a series that sometimes errs a little too hard on the side of the light and goofy.

4) Portal 2

Portal was a great, unexpected treat, but it was also practically a minigame it was so short. Portal 2 expanded on the original Portal in every way without sacrificing any of the sharp humor or superlative level design that made original so memorable. Valve definitely didn’t give us lemons with this one.

3) Dishonored

A great late-generation surprise, Dishonored broke out of the crowd of sequels and me-too shooters to deliver a truly unique new world. Also, unlike most games that harp on about player choice (which is like, half of them these days) Dishonored actually delivered. Oh, and it made first-person jumping tolerable, which is a pretty lofty achievement in and of itself.

2) Batman: Arkham City

Arkham Asylum let fans truly be Batman, but one thing was missing — Gotham City. Gotham City is almost as important a character as Batman himself in Bat-comics, and Batman: Arkham City finally let us play as Batman in his native habitat. Crashing into Gotham City’s courthouse to beat up Two-Face before seamlessly swinging across town to GCPD headquarters to fight Mr. Freeze is pretty much everything we ever dreamed video games could be. Hell, maybe someday we’ll even collect the last of those Riddler trophies.

1) The Last of Us

The Last of Us was the most brazenly ambitious game of this generation. Basically Naughty Dog decided they wanted to make a playable video game out of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and they actually succeeded. Naughty Dog made a mechanically sound action game that was nevertheless tense as hell (see, it can be done Resident Evil). A game that was dramatic and incredibly dark, but still fun to play. The Last of Us was a brave, original capper to a generation that often played things a bit too safe.

So there you have it, the full 50 in all their somewhat eclectic glory. It’s been fun hashing this thing out with you guys, so don’t hold back! Hit the comments and let us know what our worst snubs were and what you’re going to do to us for including not one, but two Wii Sports games on the list.

I’ve had issue with the ranking of a lot of your games (Gutair Hero is not a top 10) but I find no flaws in your top 5. Well done Nathan, I’m sure you got more grief then praise for this effort, but kudos.

Uncharted 2 seems to get overshadowed by TLOU, but that game and that level were simply amazing. Should’ve been somewhere in the top 50. MGS4 not for everyone… I guess. Little Big Planet needed some respect.

2nd co sign. The veteran mode of COD4 was truely one of the most challenging multiplayers ive played through. The proposition of a clock of grenade indicators popping up around me for most of the game kept me in it

Honestly the last of us had some of the worst voice acting and dialogue I’ve ever heard in a game. Nothing was delivered naturally and the southern accents were horrible. Other than that I liked it. Also fallout and elderscrolls

I really enjoyed Splinter Cell: Conviction, but largely for the things that really bugged longtime SC fans- the high speed stealth and Mark and Execute made it feel like you were playing as a highly trained badass in a way that I think is only matched by the Arkham games.

Complaining about the storyline in an open world Bethesda game is kind of beside the point. They are much more enjoyable experiences when you disregard the main quest (or just come back to it every now and again when you feel like it) and just do your own thing with the world provided. I never finished either New Vegas or Skyrim, but I’ve still dumped 100+ hours into both and they’d both make my top 20 at least.

Modern Warfare 2 offered the most fun multi-player experiance by far. Has the best mix of perks with fun map design. Would have been perfect if we got all the COD4 maps. The Black Ops games are just a mess. The polish isn’t there like the Infinity Ward stuff and they screwed up too much with multiplayer.

Well at the very least, I will bookmark this to go play some of the games on here I haven’t played before. I am surprised Fallout 3 didn’t make it but as long as Red Dead Redemption is in the top 10 I can live with it.

Glad to see SMG make the top five. It really was flawless. The most remarkable thing to me was the music. I had always liked the music in Mario games, but they always had more of a “jingle” quality to them . The orchestrated tracks in SMG just floored me the first time I heard them . Great stuff.

Jay Z’s presence aside, last year’s NBA 2K was probably the best basketball game I’ve ever played. It had all I could ever want in a sports game, especially the color commentators who actually sounded natural, not just spouting the same 10 lines game after game.

Glad Galaxy made it, probably one of the most fun games I played. However, Fallout 3 and/or Skyrim needs to be in there. They’re fun, time consuming and interesting. Definitely one of the highlights of the last generation.

I didn’t like Dishonored as much as I had hoped to, but I give it major credit for “karma” system, as well for fulfilling a dream I didn’t know I had. Mainly being able to conjure rats to devour my enemies.

I never finished Dishonored, but from what I’ve read, and what I actually did play, it almost feels like it’s just lazy programming to distract you from the fact that there’s not a new Fallout on an Elder Scrolls off year. Not that it’s bad, but I got distracted by any number of other games that were far more interesting.

I do love me some Space Marine. Pity nobody ever seems to be on to play the Dreadnought mode anymore.
Dark Millenium is gone, gonegonegone. There’s an action MMO in development though: [www.eternalcrusade.com]

I can only speak for myself, but for me, it’s a very pretty game, but it’s also a very dumb game. The gameplay is on rails, a lot of the non-gunplay elements feel like afterthoughts, and Nathan Drake is what a bro thinks Indiana Jones is like.

This was a pretty good list. But any list that places Dishonored ahead of any Bioshock game, let alone in the top five, is instantly invalidated. Dishonored felt like a half-baked also-ran that was one-part Bioshock, one-part Assassin’s Creed, full of dull characters. A couple of nice combat mechanics, but ultimately forgettable.

No Uncharted at all? Hard to take any best of the generation list seriously without at least a nod to the second game in the series…you have Tomb Raider represented, a game that originally inspired Uncharted but ultimately assimilated it in its new form, without a mention to the true blue original? Whatever ones personal tastes may be, Uncharted was at the very least a hugely influential video game, moreso than 90% of the rest of the list! the stories were amazing! the gameplay as smooth as silk, and the visuals some of the best on consoles.

I realize lists are subjective, but in 50 games, I’m really kind of surprised Skyrim didn’t make it onto this one. People/the internet couldn’t shut up about it for MONTHS, and that’s gotta count for something.

The list isn’t perfect, but the logic behind their choices is fair. It’s still a better list than most other sites’ top lists.

My two fav FPS of this generation were the two Bad Company games, and I would argue either are better the majority of shooters here (which I think might just be COD:MW4), but neither are here. That just comes down to preference I guess.

I’ve been reserving nerd rage over some ommissions, but one of these needed to be somewhere on the list. They’re early in the generation, but the two Rainbow Six: Vegas games are excellent too, and worthy of a back slot.

Pretty solid list! Things like Pac-Man Championship Edition and Wii Sports Resort beating things like Journey and Fallout New Vegas is kind of baffling, and I probably would’ve put Mass Effect 2 a lot higher, but I agree with the vast majority of these picks.

On a different subject, repeating a request I’ve made a couple times: please remove either the keyboard controls or the next slideshow/previous slideshow links from these slideshow posts, please. Can be very inconvenient when editing a comment.

After replaying both this summer (City first, then Asylum), you’re right. They’re very different games. Asylum is much more tense and atmospheric, like how a good survival horror should be. But the scale of City allows you to be more like Batman, and while I didn’t find it as tense, it was more action packed.

I feel like half this list is used just to generate outraged troll hits on the internet. Nice job missing every uncharted game on this list, heavy rain, dark souls, borderlands and any halos. Seriously let’s make a list that excludes commercially and critically successful games in favor of retro remakes from previous systems, crackdown and not 1 but 2 dead rising games. You got bored playing skyrim but somehow didn’t with dead rising? At least there were pretty things to look at. Nice number one pick btw, especially for anyone making 2013 flop prediction articles from earlier this year.

I still haven’t finished Last of Us. The game legitimately pissed me off at points, and when a game cheats me, I end up disliking it. (At one point in the game you have to turn on a generator which then ends up attracting the attention of every Clicker and Infected in the area. I attempted to hunt them all beforehand, but NONE of them were in the closed area that I searched. Then I turn on the generator and get swarmed. That’s a cheat as far as I’m concerned.)
Sorry, I disagree with much of this list. No Borderlands, no Fallouts, no Skyrim, it’s completely invalid. I could see the third and first Uncharteds not being on here, but not the second.

How about this: you ask us, the readers, to submit a list to you guys of our Top 10 or 15 or whatever. Then you assign points, if it’s a Top 10 list, #10 gets 1 point, #1 gets 10 points and so on depending on the size of the list. Set a deadline. Then compile the list and see what really are the true games of this past generation.

About time somebody called a spade a spade. I got stuck like an hour in and I haven’t even tried since. What, you want me to run away from the zombies, push some box and escape this room, all in the exact order and fashion you want? And if I get so much as touched by one of those things, I die instantly? Sign me up!

That was the most frustrating point in the game for me as well. To beat it easily, I started the generator pull, cancelled, killed the newly spawned runners with melees. Started the generator, then ran up the sunken incline to the right to reach the 2nd floor. I then built a perimeter of sorts using nail bombs. The infected can only enter the 2nd floor from that point, so I slaughtered them as they rushed me.

God of War… I love the franchise, I’ve played all the games in it, but when it came to putting it on this list, I couldn’t rank it on mine for two reasons. One, it’s Zelda only starring an asshole and designed by Frank Frazetta. Two, Kratos really is an enormous asshole.

Nice read, though bummed Telltale’s Walking Dead and Team Fortress 2 were omitted. Also for the five other people who feel The Last Of Us is severely overrated, here’s something I wrote[polytronicpolytronic.tumblr.com]